Harness for cross weaving



United States Patent 3,015,346 HARNESS FOR CROSS WEAVING Frank H. Kaufmann, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., assignor t0 Steel Heddle Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, ?a., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed June 7, 1960, Ser. No. 34,453 4 Claims. (Cl. 139-52) This invention relates to harness for cross weaving, that is, to harness for use in that method of weaving known as cross weaving, sometimes called doup weaving or gauze weaving in which the warp threads, arranged in pairs, are crossed and twisted about each other at as many places in the shed as may be desirable, either for a succession of picks, or for single picks according to a pattern or design to be produced.

In U.S. Patent No. 1,037,151, there is illustrated a harness for cross weaving which is made of thin flat strips of metal and which has been very extensively used.

The present invention relates particularly to improvements in the lifting heddles employed in harness of the type therein illustrated.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide metal harness for cross weaving in which the lifting heddles are constructed in an improved manner to reduce the tendency now present to pinch or abrade the doup warp during weaving operations.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide lifting heddles for cross weaving harness which are particularly suitable for very fine or fragile warps but which are also advantageous for use with relatively heavy warps.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved lifting heddles for cross weaving so that the operation of the harness will be facilitated and a better product will be obtained.

Other objects and advantageous features of the invention will be apparent from the description and claims.

The nature and characteristic features of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part thereof, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical elevational view of one set of heddles for controlling a pair of warp ends in a loom harness for cross weaving;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view of the central portion of the same, the heddles being shown in shifted operative relationship; and

FIG. 3 is an edge View enlarged, of the central portion of a guide or lifting heddle made in accordance with the present invention and illustrating the novel construction of the same.

It should, of course, be understood that the description and drawings herein are illustrative merely, and that various modifications and changes can be made in the structure disclosed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the harness in accordance with the present invention there'are provided, in each set of heddles, a doup heddle or needle, and a pair of lifting heddles, each in many respects similar to those shown in the aforesaid Patent No. 1,037,151 and to a form of harness shown in U.S. Patent No. 2,913,013.

Each doup heddle or needle 7 is preferably made by punching or stamping the same from a thin fiat strip of metal, and each said doup needle has, at one end, an eye portion 8, in which the eye 9 for controlling the doup warp 10 is located. The outer margin 11 of the eye end 8 of the doup heddle 7 is arched or curved, while the inner under margin 12 of the eye end 8 is preferably flat.

Depending downwardly, from the eye end 8 of the doup heddle 7, are two legs 13 which terminate at their lower extremities in an enlarged portion 14, each of "ice which portions is provided with a mortise or slot 15 for the passage therethrough, on each face of the harness, of a bar or rod (not shown) for the positive return of the doup heddles 7 to the neutral location in the ordinary and well known manner.

As in the aforesaid Patent Nos. 1,037,151 and 2,913,- 013, there are provided, for each set of heddles, two guide or lifting heddles 16, each of which is made of two fiat strips of metal or wire 17 and 18, fastened to each other in any preferred manner, but preferably by impressing, in each of the strips 17 and 18 from which the heddle is formed, a boss 19 which is secured, preferably by welding, to the similar boss 19 provided in the other strip of each composite heddle.

The foregoing arrangement is such that there is pro vided, intermediate the ends of each composite lifting heddle, a seat 22 for the inner under margin 12 of the eye portion of the doup needle 7. The arrangement is such that, when either lifting heddle is raised as shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings, above the neutral position, it will take with it the doup needle 7 and thereby raise the doup warp 10 above the standard warp 20 and on the desired side thereof according to which lifting heddle is raised, thereby to effect the crossing of the warp ends.

As in the aforesaid Patent Nos. 1,037,151 and 2,913,- 013, each composite guide or lifting heddle 16, at or about its medial portion, and immediately above the seat 22, is bent or offset as at 28 out of a straight longitudinal extension 27, said offset of the lifting heddles, being for the purpose of providing, between the upper portions of the lifting heddles, a definite space in which the crossing of the warp ends may take place.

The upper portions of the composite lifting heddles 16 extend upwardly in substantially parallel spaced relationship to their upper end portions, which are mortised, as at 24, for mounting the upper ends of the lifting heddles on the upper heddle rods (not shown), which are of the usual and ordinary kind mounted in heddle frames (not shown), for the manipulation of the lifting heddles in the usuai and ordinary manner.

Likewise, the lower end portions of the composite lifting heddles 16 are mortised as at 25 for mounting the same on the lower heddle rods (not shown) in the usual manner.

Each of the composite lifting heddles 16, at and innuediately above the offset portion 28 may have the strips 17 and 18 thereof bent inwardly as at 29 (see FIG. 3) to effectively maintain the separation of the two strips 17 and 18 of each of the lifting heddles 16, the separation being efiective in the offset portion 28 and for a part of the straight portion immediately thereabove.

The present invention relates more particularly to the provision in each of the lifting heddles 16, and at a location in the straight portion of each lifting heddle immediately above the bosses 19, and below the offset portion 28 on the inner edges of the lifting heddles 16 of facing arcuate notches 30 the end margins of which have smooth transition portions 31 and 32 to prevent injury to the warps. The notches 30, as shown particularly in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the alignment with the eye 9 provide a clear and unobstructed place for the warp 10, and thus prevent pinching or abrading of the warp 11 particularly when the lifting heddles 16 are at the positions shown in FIG. 1.

It will be noted that by the foregoing arrangement the main warp 10 is much freer than heretofore of likelihood of pinching or abrasion by the lifting heddles 16, particularly when their straight portions 27 are close together with the doup heddle 7 having the lifting heddles 16 seated.

I claim:

1. 1n loom harness for cross weaving, a pair of lifting heddles, and a doup needle comprising a thin flat piece of metal having an eye portion through which the doup warp extends and two legs extending downwardly therefrom, each of the lifting heddles comprising two flat strips of'rnetal and each of said lifting heddles having a seat for engaging the eye portion of the doup needle, each of said lifting heddles having an upward extension above said seat and extending vertically upward in separated relationship to their upper end portions thereby providing a space through which the standard warp extends and in which the crossing of the warps occurs, said extensions of said lifting heddles above said seat being disposed in planes parallel to the plane of said doup needle, at least one of said lifting heddles having at its inner edge and at said upward extension an outwardly offset edge portion for alignment with said eye portion and for reception of the doup warp in closely spaced condition of said upward extensions of said lifting heddles.

2. In loom harness for cross weaving, a pair of lifting heddles, and a doup needle comprising a thin fiat piece of metal having an eye portion through which the doup warp extends and two legs extending downwardly therefrom, each of the lifting heddles comprising two flat strips of metal and each of said lifting heddles having a seat for engaging the eye portion of the doup needle, each of said lifting heddles having an upward extension above said seat and extending vertically upward in separated relationship to their upper end portions thereby providing a space through which the standard warp extends and in which the crossing of the warps occurs, said extensions of said lifting heddles above said seat being disposed in planes parallel to the plane of said doup needle, each of said lifting heddles having at its inner edge and at said upward extension an outwardly offset edge portion for alignment with said eye portion and for reception of the doup warp in closely spaced condition of Said upward extensions of said lifting heddles.

3. In loom harness for cross Weaving, a pair of lifting heddles, and a doup needle comprising a thin flat piece of metal having an eye portion through which the doup warp extends and two legs extending downwardly therefrom, each of the lifting heddles comprising two flat strips of metal and each of said lifting heddles having a seat for engaging the eye portion of the doup needle, each of said lifting heddles having an upward extension above said seat and being offset above said extension and thence extending vertically upward in separated relationship to their upper end portions thereby providing a space through which the standard warp extends and in which the crossing of the warps occurs, said extensions of said lifting heddles above said seat being disposed in planes parallel to the plane of said doup needle, at least one of said lifting heddles on its inner edge and at said upward extension having a notch for alignment with said eye portion when its seat is in engagement with said eye portion and for reception of the doup warp in closely spaced condition of said upward extensions of said lifting heddles.

4. In loom harness for cross weaving, a pair of lifting heddles, and a doup needle comprising a thin flat piece of metal having an eye portion through which the doup warp extends and two legs extending downwardly there from, each of the lifting heddles comprising two flat strips of metal and each of said lifting heddles having a seat for engaging the eye portion of the doup needle, each of said lifting heddles having an upward extension above said seat and being offset above said extension and thence extending vertically upward in separated relationship to their upper end portions thereby providing a space through which the standard warp extends and in which the crossing of the warps occurs, said extensions of said lifting heddles above said seat being disposed in planes parallel to the plane of said doup needle, each of said lifting heddles on its inner edge and at said upward extension having a notch for alignment with said eye portion when its seat is in engagement with said eye portion and for reception of the doup warp in closely spaced condition of said upward extensions of said lifting heddlw,

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

